2017 – Asia Pacific Travel Trends

A study released by Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a leading technology company serving the global travel industry, reveals a series of highly contrasting traveller preferences behind the growing Asian Pacific travel market.

Four out of five Asian travellers surveyed state that travel is no longer a luxury for them, it’s a necessity. Over one in three say they would travel for leisure three or more times per year.

“Barriers to travel in the region are breaking down – strong macro-economic performance, rising personal incomes, a surge in affordable travel options and increased Government support are all driving growth – meaning traveller volumes are undisputedly on the rise. But traveller preferences are also evolving,” comments Todd Arthur, vice president of sales and market development for Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific. “Those who work in the industry are observing that serving travellers based on a traditional trip category alone, such as business or solo or senior travel, has limited value in today’s more dynamic market.”

Andrew Herdman, Director General, Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, notes: “It’s hard to segment consumers across the markets, but you may be able to identify some common themes based on the values of travellers and psychographics. No one has approached it this way yet.”

Major polarisation of Asian travellers exists

Using a psychographic assessment of travellers, the study finds that major polarisation exists across two key dimensions around the region: ‘Motivation’ – whether a traveller is motivated by ‘self’ or ‘others’ in their travel choices – and ‘Behavior’ – specifically the level of control a person wants to exert over their trip.

Self-oriented travel with a personal touch

However a small majority of travellers are more likely to be motivated to travel by self-oriented reasons (56%), seeking to build their own individuality and life experiences rather than the opportunity to gain experiences to share with others (44%). When it comes to behavior, more travellers would rather exert control in their trip (58%) over letting someone else take charge (42%). This reflects a growing sense of consumer empowerment and willingness to invest more effort in personalising the travel experience; pre, mid or post trip.

Introducing the four Asian traveller types

Mapping these polarisations across both behaviour and motivation gives rise to four distinct Asian traveller types. They are: the Explorer, Connector, Follower and Opportunist

More control doesn’t mean less help!

Taking more control of a trip does not come at the expense of external support and trip guidance offered by travel providers and agents. In fact the study finds that over three in five Asians (64%) expect to use a travel agency for their next trip.

Sabre is working with travel companies in the region to introduce new technologies that help them adapt and respond to these changing traveller types. “We’re encouraging our customers in the travel industry to ask, ‘how do I evolve my offering to connect with these travellers in the way they want?’ That’s how they’ll capture their attention, and credit cards,” says Todd.

“Take the Explorers, for example. They are the traveller type most likely to want to plan their trip on the go, so there’s a great opportunity today for the industry to provide consumers with technology platforms that offer on-demand trip planning and travel shopping services.”

‘Explorers’ take top spot

One in three Asian travellers fall into the ‘Explorer’ category, making this the most common traveller type around the region. Notably though, after this there is an almost even split of travellers, by volume, between the three remaining traveller types.

National preferences

Geographic groupings of traveller types do exist around the region though. After Explorer, which is the top traveller type for all 11 Asian markets surveyed, the following groupings were recorded:

Connectors tend to be swaying their influence in Australia, Indonesia, Korea and New Zealand.

Followers are gathering together in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Sabre Travel Network’s senior vice president for Asia Pacific, Roshan Mendis, concludes: “Asia Pacific’s travel industry is booming. Not only are we the world’s largest travel market today but we are also one of the regions with the highest levels of projected growth. With this comes rapid evolution in the way people travel; their expectations, choices, likes and dislikes. We need to understand these changes to keep the travel industry players we serve at the forefront of this evolution.”

Sabre is bringing more data-driven decision support tools to market this year that will help airlines, hotels and travel agencies track and understand their customers’ evolving profiles in order create more personalised and relevant experiences for travelers. This includes the new Sabre Red Workspace.

Feature hot men & H2O around South Florida. Be sure to partake in the KICKSTARTER campaign for ‘MEN AND WATER’ by David Vance. Although I have had more than 12 coffee table books of my work published, Men and Water is my first Kickstarter project. The majority of my previous books have been shot mostly […]

Michael Zakar and Zach Zakar are queer advocates, models, YouTubers, and all around great guys. After reading their interview, you can go grab their book, it’s a great coming-of-age read about twin brothers born into an Iraqi-American, Chaldean household. Also, it involves a story about holy grapes. We caught up with Michael as they were […]

Two boys stand before Dmitry Zemenkov lens and this is what happened. See two new male models in front of your screen. Exclusive in Fashionably Male. Let’s flight to Vilnius Lithuania is about 7,290 kilometers from Washington, DC as the crow flies. Vilnius-based photographer Dmitry Zemenkov instinctively captures the mood and feeling of models, and […]

I’d like to introduce Frederico Costa in the new cover story photographed by the great Frederico Martins, styled by the new appointed fashion director of GQ Portugal Nelly Gonçalves, make up done by the beautiful Patricia Lima and hair by the wonderful Rui Rocha. Frederico services a young healthy European Tony Ward back in the 90’s where he […]

My suggestions for reading some great gay blogs available on-line Written by – The Offbeat Asian Episode 12 – Finding Out That My Boyfriend Has HIV My relationship with the Russian guy was like a rollercoaster ride, with plenty of ups and downs. Many mishaps happened, like the time a young kid asked him for […]